I have been planning to attend Arizona State since the end of May, but recently got off the waitlist at SMU and was offered $75,000. I really enjoyed my visit to Tempe and think ASU is a good law school. In addition, I have made an offer on a condo which will likely be accepted.

However, at the beginning of the cycle SMU was one of my top choices. I was born in Dallas, my sister currently lives there and my father and grandfather attended SMU undergrad. I know little about the law school though, and was unable to visit.

Anyone have any similar predicaments? Suggestions? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Assuming you are not the new owner of a condo in Tempe, I would go to SMU. SMU is a slightly better law school than ASU, not to mention the fact that they offered you $75,000! That is a huge and generous offer. Add in the family connections in Dallas and this seems like an easy decision.

My brother chose WUSTL (with $35,000) over Vandy (with no money) two years ago. He still says it was the best decision he ever made.

Vanderbilt is a great school for undergrad, but not ideal for being a law student. Nashville is also a very odd city and not really my cup of tea. On the other hand, I found WUSTL to have a gorgeous campus and Saint Louis to be a very affordable, livable city.

I'm a debt averse person, especially in this type of economy. I would definitely splurge and pay an extra $75,000 to go to one of the better T14, but I don't think there is that much of a difference between WUSTL and Vandy to pay an extra $75,000

Everyone has their reasons for choosing their undergrad. For some, it makes more sense to go to state school and for others and ivy or similar (especially if the cost ends up being less than a state school).

Stop shitting on people's undergrads.

As for law school...we don't know if ug is tie breaker or a help...its all speculation.

Amen!

argo, I think you might want to consider just letting the matter rest. Launching personal insults doesn't move the discussion or debate along.

Your overall LSDAS GPA will be what matters most; if you're right that that's a 3.1, I don't think anybody's going to be automatically throwing your application away. The LSAT, of course, is the crucial component.

I don't think LSD has an anti-Penn bias per se. If anything, this board exhibits the opposite bias. In this case, you invited sharp comments when you unfairly minimized state schools and made an absurd allusion equating Penn to Harvard.

Nobody is saying your degree is worthless. Itís obviously not. People are merely pointing out that it has little value in law school admissions.

I wasn't denegrading state schools, I was simply stating that given an opportunity to go to a state school or an elite institution, one should choose the latter regardless of debt implications or whatever. I simply gave myself as an example of someone who was a two-year FOB before I got to Penn and how it changed my life completely. I then made a generalization using a hypothetical student at Harvard. I did not compare Penn to Harvard. Although, it is just as hard, if not harder, to get into Wharton UG than it is to get into H.

Not suprusingly dekocards and bruinbro attacked me in the same manner as they attacked another poster in this same exact thread. After all, we are these Northeast elitist liberals who dare to express an opinion different from theirs.

I am not trying to attack you. I just pointed out that you will naturally invite sharp comments when you inexplicably continue to equate Penn with Harvard and assert that some nebulous concept of "elite schools" dwarfs the education offered at state universities.

Back to the main issue: I don't think anybody is saying that your degree isnít good. It is good. It just has little value in the context of law school admissions.

Hi, I'm new to this site. I'm now a senior at a not well known state university, and I'm graduating with a finance major this year.

My undergrad GPA is 3.3, finance major GPA is 3.1, and my LSAT is 177. Thinking about applying to law schools this coming fall. But just went to site to calculate my LSDAS GPA, and it turns out to be 3.08. I got straight A's during my senior year, but screwed up in my junior year because of family and motivation problems.

So, no chances at Chicago or NYU at all? How about UMich and UVA then? Thanks in advance for your advice.

You will still have some great options. How did your LSAC GPA differ so dramatically from the 3.3 GPA you thought to be valid?